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BY 



H. C. BLISS 






FEANKLIN NEWS CO., 
No. 725 Filbert Street, 
• Philadelphia, 
Pa. 



Wing /Glass-Ball Shooting 



-^ 



RIFLE 



Containing Instructions for Beginners in Snap Shooting and an 
Exposure of Some of the Popular Falla- 
cies IN Regard to it. 



BY ^ 

H. C. BLISS, 

II 

DES MOINES, IOWA, 






^ 

t-^^ 


FRANKLIN NEWS CO., 

No. 725 Filbert Street, 

Philadelphia, 

Pa. 





PREFACE. (^vnn7 

The author's object in writing the following pages is a sincere desire on 
his part to encourage xlmericans to become experts with a rifle. Most of the 
works that are written and most of the practice that is indulged in is at long 
range, and while this is undoubtedly a legitimate field for practice, the writer 
claims that it is just as legitimate and more necessary, by far, for a rifleman 
to handle his weapon rapidly and accurately at short range. This style of 
shooting has not been practiced to any great extent except by a few profes- 
sionals, and they have thrown such an amount of mystery around it that ama- 
teurs have thought the art entirely beyond them. If the author can do any- 
thing to remove this mystery and show that quick or "snap shooting" with a 
rifle is within the reach of all, he will have accomplished his object. 

H. C. BLISS. 



RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 

TO THE AMATEUR RIFLEMEN OF AMERICA 

BY THE AUTHOR. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

CHAPTER I— Necessary Qualifications, 3 

CHAPTER II— First Lessons, 4 

. 7 

10 

. 13 

15 

. 17 

21 

. 23 

28 



CHAPTER III— Targets, . . . . . 
CHAPTER IV— Shooting at Objects Thrown in the Air, 

CHAPTER V— Wing Shooting, 

CHAPTER VI— The Care of a Gun and How to Handle It, 

CHAPTER VII— Your Gun, 

CHAPTER VIII— Your Outfit, 

CHAPTER IX- Rifle Sights, 

CHAPTER X— Shot Cartridges and Sundry Humbugs. 

CHAPTER XI— Some Fancy Shooting, 33 



COPYRIGHT, 1886, BY FRANKLIN NEWS CO. 



CHAPTER L 



NECESSARY QUALIFICATIONS. 

The question is often asked, What is necessary to become a wing-shot 
with a rifle? I think I can answer that question with one word: practice; 
and not so much of that as some people think. When Dr. Carver first came 
before the public, even some of the best riflemen of the West thought that he 
was specially gifted, and two of the best shuts on the Pacific coast talked the 
matter over and concluded that it wasn't worth their wh'le to try it. After- 
ward, they decided to see what they could do, and did a little practicing, all 
alone, where no one could see them, and to their infinite surprise they found 
that they could, with a little practice, do nearly everything that Career 
claimed to do. 

The fir^t thing that led the author to try it was seeing a boy, about six- 
teen y ais old, shooting in a gallery at a s^vinging target. He did so well 
that, after he went out, the gallery-man was asked ** Huw long has he been 
practicing?" and the answer, '' Only about six weeks " set me to thinking. 
I had never been a good shot with a rifle ; I h >d alwavs believed the old fogy 
doctrine that to be a good rifle shot a man mu t have lo's of '* nerve," as it is 
called; or, in other words, to come nearer the truth, he must not have any 
nerve, and must be able to hold the sights of his rifle aligned on an object 
for several seconds without a tremor. This I had never been al)le to do; 
and as I had owned a rifle ever since my b »yhood days, and fired a good 
many pounds of lead and powder away wi'hout any very flattering results, I 
had about given it u i, and turned my attention to a shot-gun as the onlv 
weapon that I felt sure of hitting anything smaller than a barn-door with, 
until I saw this young fellow handle a gun. Ttien I took courage, turned 
ov. r a new leaf, thr w away all the old t aditions about rifle-shooting that 1 
had ever heard, a'ld went to work to s<^e for m\ self if a man who was nerv- 
ous and had no special qmlifications could ever make a respectable score. 
The result has more than satisfied me, for wHle I never expect to become a 
celebrated shot, it h is proved to mv entire satisfaction and to many others of 
my acqu durance t)iat there is no particular ^?// required to shoot well. 

It would seem, on the whole, that a man of nervous temperament hns 
some advantages in '*snap shooting" over others; because he uaturaliy 



4 WING AND GLASS-BALL SHOOTING 

makes quick motions, and this is absolutely necessary in this kind of work. 
Another thing to always remember in practice is not only to make your 
motions quick, but to put in use enough muscle to have your gun come 
firmly to your shoulder every time you raise it, and strike the shoulder 
firmly. Don't be ^^ dainty'*'* and ^^ gingerly'''' about your wvrk, but make 
every motion as if you meant it. Any one of my readers who is at all 
familiar with military drill will appreciate what I mean. I think that one 
reason why the regular troops are apt to carry off the prize in a competitive 
drill is because they are taught and drilled continually on this point, that 
every motion should be made with vim, and it you drill under the instruction 
of an old army officer for a week, you will find that at the end of that time he 
will have that so thoroughly impressed on your mind that you will never 
forget it. 

By keeping the above points firmly fixed in your mind, yon iriil see that 
all that is required in addition is the necessary practice, to enat>le you to bring 
the gun to the proper place every time you raise it to your shoulder, and of 
this I will speak in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER II 



FIRST LESSONS, 

Your first lessons in snap shooting should be such that you will feel 
encouraged at the result and not get disheartened, as you are liable to do if 
you attempt difficult feats. 

I think that this is one of the things that has spoiled many a naturally 
good shot. He would attempt some of the feats of professionals, and, of 
course, fail, and then give the whole thing up in disgust. 

If you have patience to do it, you can take your first lessons in your 
room, without firing a shot, to very good advantage. 

See first, of course, that your gun is not loaded (of this I shall have 
occasion ti speak again further on), hold it in the position of '* ready *^ (see 
cuts I and 2), but do not raise the hammer, unless it interferes with your 
sights, fix your eye on some small object, either in the room or at something 
out of the window, and bring your gun quickly and firmly to your shoulder, 
trying meanwhile to have the sights aligned with the object you are looking 
at. Take it down, and try the same thing over and over again. At first, of 
course, the gun will not come where you want it to, but you will find that a 
half hour's practice a day (more if you can spare the time) for a week will 
do wonders for you, and that the gun will be almost where you want it the 
instant it strikes your shoulder. 



WITH A RIFLE. 



This kind of practice you will find to be a great help to you even after 
you become a good shot and have sto[!)ped practice a little while. If you are 
going out to shoot, take up your gun and go through the motions a few times, 
and it does you almost as much good as firing. 

The first target that I would recommend to the beginner is by all means 
one that swings, and is large enough and the range short enough so ttiat you 
can see every time wiiat you have done. A i2-mch target, and a 30-foot 
range are about right to begin on. 




Cut I. Cut 2. 

Then, when you begin to practice, do not hold your gun to your shoulder, 
aiming at one end of the space where the target swings and wait till it has come 
back to that point two or three times before you shoot. This is one of the most 
common errorsthatbeginnersareaptto fall into,and nothing could hurt you more. 

Bring the gun to your shoulder and try to have the sights come to the 
right place, as I have siid before, when it strikes the shoulder; but when it 



WING AND GLASS-BALL SHOOTING 



does strike the shoulder, don't fail to pull the trigger. If you fail to hit the 
tartlet the first few shots, never mind, but go ahead. Get into the habit of 
firing when you ought to fire and this very thing will nerve you up to your work. 

A great many will tell you that a good shot never sees the sights on his 
gun, but sho ts by instinct. The instinct that all good shots have is the 
instinct of bringing their gun to the proper place when they try, and right 
there the "instinct" part of the business ceases, and in one-quarter of a 
s'^cond they have time to adjust the sights and then pull the trigger. That is 
another thing that is d ne by instinct — pu ling the trigger. You will find 
that after some practice you will pull the trigger without knowing it, and 
without any apparent effoit, just as you would move your hand to catch a ball 
that was thrown to you. 

A few hours practice at a swinging target will show you that you can 
get nearer the ** bull's eye " each loo shots that you fire, and you will sot n 
want to try your hand at something else. Before leaving the swinging target, 
extend the range, if p ssible, to 75 feet by degrees, say 10 feet at a t^me. 
Try hitting it at different points in its flight ; I mean, say put in lo consecu- 
tive shots just as it passes the center, and then try to hit it just as it is halt 
way between the center and the end. This will show you whether you are 
falling into the habit of shooting at it at one particular point or not, and help 
to break you of that habit. 

Another good thing to practice is *' call shots." Stand at the score with 
your gun at " ready ^^^ and have some one call for you as foil ws: He first 
a.sks yoUf *' Are you ready?'''' You answer ^^ Ready f'' and he then ciiUs, 
^^ One, two, three, fire 1''^ His counting and the word ^fire^^ should not 
occupy over one and one-half or two seconds. At the word ^^one^^ you bring 
your gun to your shoulder, and before the word *^fiie" is entirely spoken 
your gun should be discharged. This is one of the best things to practice 
that I know of, especially at a swinging target. You have to shoot quick, 
and you do not know where the target will be. This is another place where 
you do not want to take your gun down from your shoulder and say, " I 
couldn't get on to it that time." Shoot whether you are **on to it" or not, 
and keep shooting t'll you can get somewhere near the center. I will ven- 
ture to say that before you have fired 300 shots in that way you will find no 
difficulty in bringing your gun so near to the right pi ice, at once, that the 
majority of shots will be fired in the "called" time without t»^ouble. 

One reason why I would urge you to always shoot as soon as the gun 
comes to the shoulder is, that it will get you very soon in the habit of pulling 
the trigger unconsciously, amd that is one of the necessary things to learn in 
quick shooting, as stated before. After you have learned to shoot fairly well 
at a swinging target it will be time enough for you to begin at objects thiown 
up in the air. And before leaving the swinging target I would advise shoot- 
ing at a smaller object than the target that you began on. A small, round 01 



WITH A RIFLE. 



pear-shaped iron ball, say I inch in diameter, at 30 feet, is a good thing to 
try after you have gotten so that you can hit the bull's eye pretty often. 

And as soon as you begin this kind of shooting, you will see the reason- 
why £ have advised you to begin at something large enough to see where you 
were shooting. You will come in some day when the conditions of light are 
a little different from what you have been used to, and go to shooting at some 
small object like the above target and will miss it ten or twenty times, and 
very likely feel di-gusted with yourself or the gun, or something, very much. 
Now go back to your old big target again, and shoot as rapidly as you can 
10 or more shots, without stopping, and then look at them. You will very 
likely find that you have made a very fair score, if you had been shooting for 
a cluster, as it is called, or trying, in other words, to see how near you could 
*' bunch'' your shots, but you have also been shoo:ing either too high, or too 
low, or to one side. And as soon as you find out the trouble >ou will go 
ahead at the small target again and make a good score. A few lessons like 
this Will give you confidence in yourself, so that when you get out and begin 
to shoot at o jccts thrown in the air and fail to hit them for a few shots, when 
you think an I almost know that }ou are holding on them, you \a ill not throw 
the gun aside in disgust, but will go to experimenting to find out the trouble. 

It cost me a great deal of worry and trouble to find out all these things 
for myself; and I have gone out and fired 50 shots and not hit a thing, and 
gotten mad and disgusted, only t > find that I was holding right all the time, 
bm my sights were not right for the light, or something of that kind. Further 
on I shall have occasion to say something about the light on rifle sights under 
the appropriate heading. 



CHAPTER III 



TARGETS, 

If you are where there is a good shooting gallery, in a large city, the 
question of targets will not bother you much, as they will have a good supply 
of all kinds. 

But probably a large number of my readers will not be so situated, and 
then the expense of learning to shoot in a gallery is a thing that deters many 
a man from the pleasure; so I will try to write this chapter as though you 
had no gallery to go to, and give you the benefit of some of the different 
targets that I have seen. 

For a swinging target, you can have cast at any foundry a disc, from 12 
to 14 inches in diameter, with a bull's eye I or i^ inches in diameter. The 
plate should be at least yi, inch in thickness, so that it will not break easily, 



8 



WING AND GLASS-BALL SHOOTING 



and should be convex, that is, it should slope back from the bulPs eye to the 
edges. If it is czsXfiat, and you shoot at it at short range, the bullets will 
spatter^ and you will be likely to loose an eye. 

There should be rings cut into the pattern^ from )^ inch to r inch apart, 
so that you can readily see how near you are getting to the center. The rod 
that it swings from should be of iron, and, if possible, at least lo feet long. 
This will give you a good long swin^ to your target. There is one peculiarity 
however about a swinging target that few people realize, and that is, that 
whether it has a swing of 3 feet or 10 from one end to the other, it takes the 
same length of time to swing across; that is, there will be just as many beats 





Cut 5. Cut 6. 

to the pendulum in a minute when you start it as there are just before it stops. 
But when it has a long swing it goes faster, and is therefore more difficult to hit. 
Near the top you should have two holes, and run bolts through these that 
will project two inches behind the target, from these you can suspend a 
flat piece of steel, say 8 inches square and y% inch thick, for a bell, and you 
can also have the rod that it swings on split at the bottom and fastened to these 
bolts.' This is better than having the rod fastened in one place at the top, for 
if you do this it will turn around sideways to you when you hit it near the edge. 
The accompanying cuts will show you perhaps better than this explanation. 



WITH A RIFLE. 



After each few rounds the target should be covered with white paint. 

When you get so that you think you can hit something small, go to a 
hardware store and get a carpenter's plumb. If you have your target fthe 
small one) dark and your background white, you will find it much easier 
to hit. 

When you begin to shoot at glass balls, if you wish to use a trap, the best 
one for the least money, that I know of, is made as follows: Take a box, say 
8 inches deep, 20 inches long and a foot wide; on this fasten a coil spring, 
as shown in the illustration (see cut 8), put the spring on a block about 3 
inches thick and run a staple through the coil, to keep it firmly in place, 
fasten one end down with another staple, and on the other end of your coil 




Cut 8. 



Cut 7. 
spring have a cup to hold the ball. The coil spring should be of material at 
least as large as a large lead pencil, and each end of it about 14 inches long. 
The coil should be near the end of the box, so that when set ready for use the 
cup will be below the edge of the box ; then when it is sprung the cross 
piece that is shown in the cut will catch it when it is just about on a level, 
and your ball will go nearly straight up in the air. If you wish to throw the 
ball away from you, you can have this cross piece moveable, so that you can 
raise it as high as you wish, or set it back nearer the coil, and get any angle 
with the ball that you desire. This, if it is fixed right, will throw the ball as 
high as it is necessary, but, as before stated, I think it is better to have the 
balls thrown by hand. 



lo WING AND GLASS-BALL SHOOTING 

You should always remember this, however, th^t unless the man who 
handles the gun is careful, the man who tosses the ball is in a dangerous 
place. In shooting at objects thrown up by hand to fall perpendicularly, lam 
always careful never to lower the gun to a level with the head of the man 
who tosses the ball. This is the only safe rule to follow when the balls are 
thrown in this manner. Of course, when they are thrown to one side there 
is not this danger. You cannot be too careful in all this kind of practice to 
never point your gun at those who are assisting you, and if you are tossing 
the ball yourself, keep a sharp lookout at the man with the gun ; and if he 
lowers it carelessly a few times, and does not take warning when you speak 
to him about it, just drop him. and shoot with some one else. 

There are many ^ other targets used in a shooting gallery, but I think 
those already given will be ample for all practicable work. Under the head- 
ing of " Some Fancy Shooting," I will give you a few others. 



CHAPTER IV. 



SHOOTING AT OBJECTS THROWN IN THE AIR. 

When you begin to shoot at objects thrown in the air, follow the same 
rules that you did in beginning at the swinging target, that is, hold your gun 
at " ready " till the object is thrown, and shoot at something large enough so 
you can see where you hit ; and the nearer round the object is the better. 

For instance, if you throw up a stick a foot long and an inch in diameter 
and throw it so that it will whirl, it will look like a large object, but you can 
readily see that you can put a ball three-fourths of an inch from the center and 
still miss your target. Either a round ball or a round, flat disc of wood 
thrown so that the flat surface will be toward you, are good objects to 
begin on. The size at first is immaterial so long as you get them large enough. 
Try a disc 4 or 5 inches in diameter to begin with. You can very easily re- 
duce the size when you get so you can hit this — and see at first how near the 
center you can come. Remember also that it is easier to see and hit a dark 
object in the air than a light colored one. 

I well remember that after I had gotten so I could hit a dollar thrown in 
the air quite often, I tried my hand at eggs ; the distance was quite short, but, 
as we had only brought a small basket full, and the ground was rather hard, 
I didn't make much of an impression on my friends until the earth had broken 
most of the eggs and I began to shoot at small clods of dirt. 

In your first practice at the swinging target I have advised you to shoot 
at the target anywhere and not get into the habit of trying to catch it at the 



WITH A RIFLE. n 



end, but in beginning to shoot at objects thrown in the air, I would advise you 
to shoot at them just at the turning point as they are poised in the air and be- 
fore they begin to decend. I do this for two reasons: ist. Because they are 
easier to hit at that time, and 2nd. Because it insures promptness and rapidity 
of action. 

You will find that you have no time to w^ste. Your object should not 
be thrown over 15 or 20 feet high, and you will soon realize that to get your 
gun to your shoulder and get it properly sighted from the time the ball or disc 
leaves the throwers hand, until it is poised in the air, needs a full aid free play 
of all the muscles. If you wear a coat you will want it loose enough so it 
will not interfere with your motions, and fit you well enough so it will not in- 
terfere with your gun, and if it is summer time you will not only find it con- 
venient to "shuck your linen," to use a Kentucky phrase, but will probably 
loosen your shoulder braces and throw them off in addition. 

Still you have plenty of time if you do not waste it^in false motions, and 
here you will realize perhaps more than ever before the amount of good that 
the practice in your room has done you if you have tried it. As the object is 
thrown your eye follows it and instinctively the gun comes to the shoulder, in 
an instant, without 2x\y hitch and without hitting your coat, it comes rapidly 
up, and just at the rij^ht instant you bring it firmly back the fraction of an 
inch, and lo ! it is pointed almost where you want it. All by instinct your 
muscles have been governed by your eye, or what you have seen, now for the 
first time, as the sights come up in line your eye catches them, and you change 
the position of your gun a trifle, perhaps it is aimed only half an inch out of 
the way; the sights and your target blend; before you realize it your finger 
has pressed the trigger, you see a bright stream of fire and while the smoke 
wreathes curl from your gun and before the target has struck the ground, you 
know that you have scored a center shot. 

After you have gotten so that you can hit small objects thrown perpen- 
dicularly up in front of you and at short range, hitting them just at the turning 
point, as I have said before, begin to try other things, but in all your practice 
stick to one thing till you can do it fairly well. Don't get smart too quick ; I 
have no doubt that some one will read this book and say ** Why that is simple 
enough, any one can do that," and so think they can hit a nickel in the air as 
soon as they have bought a gun, and perhaps go out and try it for their first 
lesson. They will probably be somewhat disappointed, for while it is easy if 
you will follow the instructions I have given you, and you can learn v/ithout 
trouble in the time specified, you bad better stay at home and not try to leain 
than not to go at it right, and I can not impress on your mind too strongly the 
necessity in everything connected with shooting, of paying attention to the 
smallest details ; usually they are the secret of success. 

I cannot illustrate this better than by a short anecdote of a good wing shot 
in California : He attended a match where a man, whom we will call Brown. 



12 WING AND GLASS-BALL SHOOTING 

was shooting, the range was short, and Brown was having things pretty much 
his own way. After watching him shoot for awhile my acquaintance offered 
to shoot him a match at 31 yards rise, I think, one barrel, for $Soo, They 
shot the match and Brown was beaten. Now for the reason : My acquaint- 
ance offered to shoot the match. He watched for Brown's wads^ and found 
that they were all blown to pieces. He knew by this, that Brown was not 
getting the full strength of his powder, and that at long range all he could get 
would be feathers. You hear a great deal about powder, how much to use 
and the kind, and how to load it, and what kind of shells to use, and how 
much shot, and a lot about chilled shot, and soft shot, and whole pages of talk 
about the best kind of a gun, but I will venture to say that not one man in 
twenty who shoots a shot-gun will pay any sort of attention to his wads. 
And I will also assert that there is nothing about loading or shooting a shot- 
gun that is really of more consequence in successful shooting. So it is about 
a rifle. Pay attention*to all these small details I have been giving you, and 
you will be satisfied with this book and with yourself, which is of far more 
consequence. 

Some of the best shots to practice after you have mastered the above are 
as follows: 

Have some one stand near your side and toss a ball out in front of you^ 
rising say to the height of 20 feet and falling about 60 or 80 feet away. This 
is much better than shooting from a trap; for if you get used to shooting from 
a trap you will soon look for the ball in one particular place every time, and 
of course get into a bad habit. Then, toss the ball away from you, but not so 
far, and try to hit it just before it strikes the ground. Then have it thrown 
over your head from behind. In fact, try hitting it thrown in as many differ- 
ent ways as possible. A good target to use and one that will stand a great 
deal of wear for this kind of work is a solid rubber ball, about the size of the 
glass balls. You can tell when you hit it by the way it jumps, even after it 
is so shot to pieces that you cannot see where it was struck. Mr. Horace 
Fletcher, of San Francisco, has invented a bell-ball that rings when hit, and 
will stand a great many shots before becoming useless, but will not stand 
anything larger than a 22-calibre ball. 

If you use a repeater, take a small cardboard box — an empty cartridge- 
box is a good thing — and put it on the water about 25 or 30 feet away» 
Shoot y^^i"/ under it the first time, and if you shoot at the right spot it will 
jump into the air 2 or 3 feet. Now try to reload and catch it in the air before 
it touches the water again. Probably, the first time you try it, one box will 
be enough to last you for the trip; but it is good practice, and, as in your 
other practice, you will be surprised to find what a few hundred shots will 
do for you. 

In Chapter III, entitled ** Targets," you will find how to make a trap, if 
you wish to use one, and also something more about different targets to use in 



WITH A RIFLE. 13 



•quick shooting; but I think, on the whole, that an object thrown by hand is 
about as good to practice at as anything, because there is always that delightful 
uncertainty about just where it is going, that lends novelty to each shot. 



CHAPTER V. 



WING-SHOOTING. 

It is with a good deal of hesitation that I write the following chapter. 
Because I have not had the opportunity to practice it that I have long de- 
sired, still I have shot enough birds on the wing to prove conclusively that it 
is practicable v/ith a rifle. 

About the first shooting that I tried on the wing was at blackbirds. I 
iired at least 100 cartridges at them as they were flying close around me with- 
out getting a feather. What the reason was I could not imagine until long 
afterwards. I held as near point blank on them as possible, never thinking 
that at so short a range I would have to make an allowance and shoot ahead 
of them, 

Some time afterwards I made a visit to the Pacific coast, and while there 
it was my good fortune to meet Dr. Geo. Chismore, of San Francisco, one of 
the best amateur shots and most genial gentlemen on the "slope" or any- 
where else, for that matter. In talking with him about it, he gave me his 
experience in gull shooting, which I take the liberty to quote. He was using 
a Winchester Express, which carries an extremely heavy charge of powder 
and a light ball, the intention being to send the ball with great velocity. He 
had not been able to hit gulls at 50 or 60 yards, although he had fired a great 
many times. One day he was shooting at them and fired at one about 1 50 
yards away, I think, and just as he pulled the trigger his left foot slipped. 
He was standing on a slippery rock at the time. It was too late to stop, and 
the gun went off. To his extreme surprise he killed the gull. The gun w^as 
pulled ahead about six feet, he thought, and he told me that this incident 
opened his eyes, and that after this he hit a number of birds at from 75 to 
150 yards. I had the pleasure to accompany the Doctor and Mr. J. A. A. 
Robinson, another splendid shot and very pleasant gentleman, to Saucelito, 
on the bay near San Francisco. Profiting by the Doctor's experience, I man- 
aged to bag a respectable number of birds; and since then my wing shooting 
has improved very much, but it was hard for me to reaUze that so many 
misses were due to shooting behind my game until I had proved it in a good 
many ways. 



14 WING AND GLASS-BALL SHOOTING 

If you are near the water where birds are flying, one of the best ways in 
the world to post yourself is to shoot at them as they skim along the surface. 
Take swallows, for instance. They fly quite rapidly. Carry your gun along 
with them and fire point blank at them. As the ball strikes the water you 
will be astonished to see how far ahead of the splash the bird is. 

Now, by successful wing shooting with a rifle I do not mean that you 
can go out and bag as many birds with it as you could with a shot-gun. 
This is out of the question. But it is more genuine sport for me to go out 
and get a brace of birds, killed with my rifle on the wing, than it would be 
to shoot a dozen with a shot-gun. Neither do I think you will be able to 
shoot many quail or ducks on the wing, although Miss Lilian Smith, of Cali- 
fornia, has made a big bag of ducks in a day, shooting many of them on the 
wing, with a little 22-caliber rifle; but she is probably the best shot with a 
22-caliber gun living. There is no reason, however, why you cannot get so 
that you can shoot birds that fly more slowly and are steady in their flight 
such as prairie chickens, geese, brant, pigeons when sailing, crows and 
hawks, and very likely you can get such ducks as Mallards, which fly slowly 
and steadily. 

An incident that amused me very much and illustrates what I wish to 
make plain in the diff"erence between a sportsman and a pot-hunter, occurred 
in Nebraska a short time ago. An uncle of mine who was brought up in the 
West and shot deer and wild turkeys in Illinois before it was all fenced up, 

went out to Nebraska to visit his son. E took the old gentleman out to 

shoot a jack-rabbit. He had a very large and swift dog that would give a 
jack a good race, and he put his father where he thought he would get a good 
shot when the rabbit started. They soon found one, and he came like a 
scared streak of chain lightning, with the dog close to his heels down past 
my uncle. That worthy gentleman stood still m his tracks and never raised 
his gun. 

" Why didn't you shoot that jack-rabbit ?''' shouted E . 

*' Shoot that rabbit! Why, boy, I tvould rather see that dog run that 
jack-rabbit than shoot all the jack-rabbits in the State of Nebraska f'"* was the 
answer that came back. The answer showed the " sportsman'''' more plainly 
than anything he could have said. He wasn't a pot-hunter, and wasn't out 
for "meat." 

In your wing-shooting there is no rule that you can go by regarding the 
distance to hold ahead that I know of but practice. You will find plenty of 
good shots with a rifle, and men who can shoot well at objects thrown up in 
the air that will tell you that it is useless to try it. Remember that a few 
years ago these same men would have told you it was impossible to hit a 
silver dollar thrown in the air. Don't pin any faith to " what you can't do " 
until you are perfectly satisfied from personal experience that it is beyond 
you. 



WITH A RIFLE. 15 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE CARE OF A GUNy AND HOW TO HANDLE IT 

The first thing I would impress on your mind in taking care of a gun is 
to always handle it as though it were loaded. That is the only safe rule to 
follow, and if any of my readers have ever been so foolhardy as to point a 
gun at any one in fun I hope it will be my good fortune never to meet them, 
for I should hold them in utter contempt and not b : slow to express it. 

At some time in your life, if you handle a gun much, you will probably 
have it discharged accidentally in your hands, and if this ever occurs you 
will see the force of my advice. If it is pointed where you would naturally 
point it if you expected it to go off, no damage will be done ; but if you are 
pointing it at some friend or your wife or mother, the result will be quite 
different. The longer I handle a gun the more afraid I get of -it, and the 
more cisposed I am to hunt alone, or with only one or two others. This is 
not a temperance essay, but I will say right here that I would not under any 
circumstances go out in the field with a man who got drunk. If a man thinks 
he has lived long enough, let him "shufHe off decently and in order," but 
for Heaven's sake don't let hm be killed by some fool that thinks he is a 
sportsman and goes out so drunk that he can't tell his friend from a jack-snipe. 

There are several positions that are all safe and good to carry a gun in 
when in the field. I usually carry mine over the right arm (see cut 3) with 
the muzzle down, and can always get it to my shoulder in time, and in this 
position the triggers and hammers are protected from brush, etc. Always 
carry it with the muzzle pointed well up in the air or down toward the 
ground. And if you are walking and fall, pay more attention to your gun 
than you do to yourself. You had better take the risk of getting a few bruises 
than shoot some one ahead of you, or than to jamb the muzzle of your gun in 
the snow or mud, and fire it off and ruin it. 

Another thing: In these days of breech-loaders there is not the slightest 
necessity for carrying your gun loaded when you get into a wagon, or in 
keeping it loaded about the house, unless you keep it so for burglars, and 
then keep it where the idiot who " didn't know it was loaded " can^t get hold 
of it. 

Perhaps it may seem foolish to some one who reads this that I should 
take so much space to say something that every one ought to know for him- 
self, but I think all those who are quite familiar with a gun will join me in 
saying that it doesn't do any harm to keep this question of safety always 
prominent, and that it is not space wasted in a book like this. 

In taking care of a gun you can't keep it too clean. If it once gets 
spotted inside it will be likely to remain so. In shooting a 22 caliber ride 



i6 



WING AND GLASS-BALL SHOOTING 



I use a magazine-gun 1 clean it out after emptying erery magazine, if I 

am shooting right along. If I am going to lay the gun aside for a few hours, 
I clean it even if I have only fired it once. A good many will tell you that 
powder is a good thing to leave in a gun. If you fall into that habit you will 
find it the best excuse in the world for not cleaning your gun sometime when 
you are too lazy to do it, and the gun will stay with powder in it for a month. 




Cuts. 

There are many preparations that are good to keep a gun from rusting. 
I have usually used Rudolph's, which is advertised in most of the sporting 
papers. I presume there are others tha: are equally good, but having tested 
this, can recommend it. 

Many good sportsmen say that you should never use water on a good 
gun to clean it. If you will use hot water, and then dry the gun thoroughly 
alterw^ds and put on a good oil or ru^t preventer, it will not injure it ; but 



WITH X. RIFLE. 17 



if you leave it damp you had better not use water at all. Turpentine and oil, 
about half and half, are used by some to clean with, and answer very well. 
Always use a nice, clear oil that will not gum ; a good jeweler always has it 
on hand. 

I usually carry with me for my 22-caliber gun a brass rod, with notches 
cut in it, that will just go into the gun with a patch about ^ of an inch square 
of canton flannel on the end of it, and oil a lot of these patches and carry 
with me. The end of the rod is square, and notched back about an inch 
half of the notches pointing one way and half the other (see cut 4) ; in the 
other end of the rod is a ring, and I fasten a snap on my vest well back 
toward the left ami, and as high as I can, to snap the rod into; in this way 
it does not interfere with my shooting, and is always convenient. While 
your gun is still warm with firing it is an easy matter to clean it with two or 
three of these patches. 

If you use a larger caliber gun, I would recommend for all field-clean- 
ing the regular field-cleaner, which is made of a strong cord, with the wiper 
at one end and a heavy ** sinker'* at the other, so you can drop it through 
Ihe gun and then pull the wiper through. 

No matter how dry a place you have for your gun, it is always well to 
put a tompkin, or an oiled rag in the muzzle, and an oiled rag in the breech, 
and, if possible, keep your gun where the temperature is even. You can 
readily see that if the gun gets very cold, and then the room where it is kept 
is heated to a high temperature, the gun will "sweat," and of course the 
moisture will rust it after awhile. 

If you want a gun to hang up in your room on a pair of antlers for an 
ornament, get some old Queen- Ann arm that was used in the Revolution. It 
will answer every purpose, and be a great deal better than ruining a fine gun. 



CHAPTER VII. 



YOUR GUN. 

I shall not enter into a discussion of the relative merits of large caliber 
rifles, even if I thoroughly understood the subject, which I am perfectly free 
to confess I do not; it would take a thousand pages in a book of this size to 
begin with, and by the time it was written perhaps some one would get up a 
gun that would be so much superior to those written about, that the whole 
subject would have to be written over again. 

For my own shooting I began with a 32-caliber, 15-inch barrel, Stevens, 
because it was compact and I could carry it without trouble in an 18-inch 
valise, by taking off the barrel. Where I going to purchase again for the 



IS WING AND GLASS-BALL SHOOTING 



same purpose, I do not know that I would make any change except in the 
size caliber. I think a 22 would answer every purpose and not be as expen- 
sive to shoot. 

The 22-caliber, 15-inch barrel, Stevens, is a weapon not to be despised, 
and is used in some localities for deer shooting. There are other good guns 
of the same kind, but I have never used them. I have heard the Wesson 
spoken of very highly by men who were competent to judge, and know it 
must be a good weapon. 

There is one thing about the Stevens, however, that needs watching, 
always, if you hand the gun to any one who is not familiar with it. The 
hammer, when you start to let it down, starts very slowly, and one not accus- 
tomed to it would suppose, perhaps, that it had caught, and so loosen the 
grasp with the thumb. As soon as it gets past a certain point it gets the full 
force of the main spring and then away it goes. I have had it accidentally 
discharged in my hands once or twice, and I try to be exceedingly careful. 
I do not know whether it could be remedied without trouble or not, and 
have sometimes thought of writing the manufacturers about it But as long 
as the gun sells as well as it does 1 suppose it would be useless to do so, as 
they are no doubt advised every day how to alter the gun so that it will be a 
success, and having been engaged in the manufacturing lousiness some time 
myself, I have more sympathy for that class Gf people than I otherwise 
would, perhaps. 

, I wish to say in this chapter a good word for the Ballard. I have seen 
one of these guns that had been used in a shooting-gallery for years, but 
which had been taken care of in the mean time, that would shoot as true as 
it was possible for a gun to shoot of that caliber. I mean by this that it was 
absolutely correct at short range. How many times it had been fired I do 
not wish to state, as the estimate its owner gave me astonished me a great 
deal. I have also seen several others that were apparently worn out to look 
at the outside, but which did as good w^ork as ever. 

There are plenty of 22-caliber guns on the market that you can take 
your choice among, only don't get any cheap |6.oo gun, and then wonder 
that you cannot hit anything. Pay enough for a gun to secure a good one. 

I use(^ the little Stevens for over four years constantly, until I had the mis- 
fortune to bulge the barrel, and then I was in California and fell in love with 
a 22-caliber Winchester that was made by Kline & Carr, of San Francisco. 
They take the 1873 action from a Winchester gun and put on a Ballard bar- 
rel, and a magazine, block and firing-pin of their own. The general appear- 
ance of the gun is similar to the new 22-caliber Winchester, but the firing- 
pin is split and has a bearing at the bottom to hold the edge of the shell up, 
as well as the extractor at the top. Then the block is higher than the Win- 
chester, and in the magazine they have the spring outside of the reservoir. 



WITH A RIFLE. 19 



instead of inside, which gives them a better spring, I think. At any rate, I 
like the gun much better than any Winchester I ever shot, and can shoot it 
more rapidly. As they have to make the guns by hand the price is ^40.00^ 
and that is m re than a good many would care to pay. 

I have never fired it at a target a great deal, but remember one score 1 
made after I had shot probably 300 shots with it. I fired at a swingingtarget,. 
30 feet distant, in motion, i inch bull's eye, 4 of the cartridges failed to ex- 
plode, and out of the 21 which did go, I made 10 bull's eyes, and the others 
were from j^ to I inch away on each side of the bulls eye, tiirie29sec. I do 
much better with it now no doubt, but thought that good enough at that time. 

The new Shirps is highly spoken of by those who have used it, and I 
have seen some very fine work done with it, but have never tried it, as I can- 
not afford unfortunately to buy every gun that I like the looks of. 

I think for your first lesion a single loader will perhaps do you as much 
good as a magazine gun, and by the time you get ti^ed of that, as most people 
do of the first gun they buy, it will be easier to decide whether you care for a 
magazine gun or not. 

I like mine very much, and as it only weigTis seven pounds, my wife- 
shoots it without any trouble, and that is one of the pleasant things about 
shooting, to have your wife or sister, or some other man's s'ster shoot with 
you, and I think it would be well in the age in which we live for every lady 
to be familiar with firearms. She may never have occasion to use them, but 
if she does she will know how. 

If you go out after birds a magazine gun wiU of course afford you a 
deal more amusement than a single loader, as you can almost always get 
two or three shots at a bird, and it is needless to say you will require them 
for a long time. 

There are a thousand things about your gun that you will want to study, 
and it would be waste time to try to tell you all about them in a work like 
this. I wish, however, to say something about the ammunition you use. 

There are plenty of men even now who will not use a breech loader,, 
because they think they can do so much better work with a muzzle loader. 
If you hold the gun right and have good sights, and it is in good condition- 
inside, you will be able to do work that you will have no reason to be 
ashamed of with a breech loader, and the advantages m'^re than compensate 
for the supposed inaccuracy. There are son.e defects about factory ammu- 
nition, however, that you oueht to know. 

The 22-caliber long cartridge isn't worth having around, in my estima- 
tion. Usually six or eight out of ten, if you shoot them any distance, will 
be found to strike the target sideways, and when a ball does that it is not fit 
to use. The trouble seems to be in the shape of the projectile. If you use 
a long slug you certainly ought to have it well patched, and this applies a?- 



.20 WING AND GLASS-BALL SHOOTING 

-well to large as small caliber guns. I do not think the 22 is made with a 
patched ball, at least I have never seen them, and do not know that it would 
he worth while. But the larger caliber cartridges are made in that way, and 
are a good thing. But if you use a factory patched ball you ought to have 
•the lands in your gun bevelled off at the rear end where the ball goes in, 
otherwise the square end of the land will tear off the patch from the ball, 
and in that case it is belter to not have any; and it takes a first-class gunsmith 
to do this and do it well. Some of the manufacturers are making their guns 
in that way now. 

There is no doubt in the world that the round ball gives much better 
T-sults than the slug, unless the latter is very carefully loaded, but the trouble 
is to get the round ball. I think that they are now made, I mean the 
^2-caliber with a round ball, but cannot recall the manufacturer's name, and 
'liave never had an opportunity to try them. With a round ball you could 
iise much more powder and get better results than you can with a long or 
:short 22 wiih a slug. Of course you cannot use tht m with a magazine gun, 
but I hope '.he day will soon come when we can get a good magazine 
:22-caliber gun that will shoot a cartridge with a round ball and a good charge 
of powder: for all practice shooting at close range, if you shoot a 32-caliber 
or larger gun and care to reload your shells, I think you will be well pleased 
with the result if you fill the shell with powder, have a good wad that will 
■fit it tight and press it firmly down, and then seat a round ball on top of 
that. You can usually get the balls already made that will fit most of the 
calibers. 

You should accustom yourself to a pull of not less than three pounds on 
.the trigger. The old fashioned hair trigger is one of the things of the past, 
and is of no earthly account except to jar off and kill somebody unexpect- 
edly, and it has been proven over and over again that you can do fully as 
good work with a three-p( und pull. 

By all means have a shot gun breech on your rifle ; never mind the 
looks. If you are going to do good work, and do it quick, you dont want 
to spend two or three seconds valuable time adjusting an old fashioned nui- 
sance to your shoulder, and when you do get it adjusted it will receive and 
transmit to the barrel every tremor of the muscles of the arm. Don't buy 
•such a gun, and if you already own one and cannot get the stock altered 
over, get a saw and cut it off, it may not look quite as handsome, but you 
can -shoot with it. 



WITH A RIFLE. 2F 



CHAPTER VIIL 



YOUR OUTFIT. 

It would perhaps seem that the first thing to be considered in this chap-^ 
ter would be what gun to use. But as I have written- one chapter on that 
subject, we will suppose that you have your gun. ^ 

Undoubtedly a great many more would shoot if they thought they could 
afford it. Now if you go at it right perhaps you can afford it. If you do 
not feel like bearing the expense alone get some one to go in with you. ir 
you are in a city where you cannot possibly get out into the country to prac- 
tice, a few of you can easily club together and fix up a shooting gallery of 
your own. A room in a basement or an attic can be fitted up quite cheaply. 
You would want a good bulk-head, a few lamps with tin reflectors, a table- 
or counter, and that would be about all the expense except the rent of your 
room. If you are where you can get out in the country, a range out of 
doors is much better. For, in addition to the benefits of getting out of doors, 
you will get just the light that you will when you go out to shoot game, and 
will soon get used to the changes on your sights. 

A couple of swinging targets, such as are described, ought not to cost at 
the outside over ^t.50to ^2,00. Your bulk-head can be built of any kind 
of old lumber or slabs. It should be built double and filled in between with- 
a ^^"N inches of earth, cinders or anything of the kind that will stop your 
balls. It is, of course, impossible to tell in different localities what this will 
cost. Your trap, as given in the previous pages, ought not to cost you over 
^1.50. 

This is really all that you need, except of course your gun, and this ex- 
pense divided between two or three of you will be very small. Another 
great saving is to buy your cartridges either in case lots or in large enough 
quantities fo that you can get low prices on them. In some places they will 
charge you fifty cents per hundred for 22 short caliber, while you ought ta 
get them in 1000 lots for twenty-five cents per hundred (at present prices,, 
this is written in 1885), or in larger lots by the case at a little less. At these 
rates, if you go to a range of your own, you can afford to shoot a great many- 
rounds every time you go, and this kind of practice will benefit you. 

If you havn't much money to spend and go to a gallery and pay five 
cents for two shots your 1000 shots would cost you ^25 00 (twenty-five 
dollars). It is no wonder that ordinary mortals who work for a living can't 



112 WING AND GLASS-BALL SHOOTING 

afford to learn to shoot if they have to pay such prices. At some of the gal- 
leries they make quite a reduction if you shoot much, but the average gallery 
man can't get it into his head that it would pay him to Itt men shoot lOO 
Tounds for anything under about $2.00, and in order to become a good 
shot you ought to shoot at least that much Or more every day for a month. 
By the end of that time you will probably be so well satisfied that you will 
find some way to continue. 

If you wish to spend money fur a field outfit I would advise you to 
get a sleeveless coat and a jacket with sleeves to match. These are adver- 
tised in all the good, sporting papers, and are made of material that will 
cost you probably from fe 00, for cheap duck, to ^25.00 or over for the finest 
grades of cloth that are usually used for this kind of clothing. Jn color 
have something that will not be conspicuous in the fields where you hunt. 
You can probably leave this to the manufacturer of such goods unless you 
know exactly what you want. Your hat or cap should be of the same kind 
of material cr color. There is nothing that game will see farther than a 
black hat. For all ordinary hunting I prefer a light pair of high-topped 
leather boots that are prepared to keep them water-proof by some of the 
articles thct you can find in any good sportman's emporium or advertised in 
any good sporting paper. These I think are much better than rubber boots, 
unless you are going to stand in the water all day. If you do wear rubber 
boots get them large enough to wear a mocassin inside them, this will pre- 
vent their chafing your feet and help in some degree to absorb the moisture. 

This is a subject that just at the present time I feel very positive about, 
as a short time ago I went on a hunt and was obliged to wear a pair of rub- 
ber boots that were too short for me or else have wet feet, as we were in 
water several inches deep most of the time. The result is that I have lost 
the nails from both my big toes, which isn't half as much fun for me as it is 
for my friends. I am ready to start on another hunt to-morrow, however, if 
I had the time. 

If you are going to go west on a ree:ular deer hunt, I would advise you 
to read " The Still Hunter," by Judge T. S. Van Dyke, it is one of the most 
useful and entertaining books that it has ever been my pleasure to read. It 
gives you the best of advice, among other things, about what to take on a 
hunt and what not-io take. The fact of the matter is the majority of men 
when they start on a hunt think it indispensable to carry about three trunks 
full of stuff. Try and see how little you can get along with besides the 
clothes you wear, and the longer you try the less you will find it neces.sary to 
carry. My friend, Dr. Chismore has made a hunting trip on the north-west 
coast of America of three months duration, and, as I recollect it, the only 
extra baggage that he carried was a pair of light blankets. So you see that 
an outfit need not be very expensive. 



WITH A RIFLE. 23 



CHAPTER IX 



RIFLE SIGHTS. 

There is so much in properly sighting a rifle, and so little that is really- 
known and appreciated about it, in regard to the necessity of having a gun 
properly sighted, by the majority, and it is such a wonderful field for study, 
that I dislike very much to write this chapter. 

I wish to say at the start, that I will simply give the results of my in- 
vestigations so far, and hope that you will derive some benefit from them. 
I have for a long time been studying rifle sights and expect to be for a long 
time to come, and any man who says he has arrived at perfection in the 
matter, and can make a perfect sight for all kinds of shooting, is simply 
the jrizing about something that he has never tried. 

In your snap-shooting the question of the point blank, at which your 
rifle should be sighted, does not cut much of a figure. You will probably 
do most of your snap-shooting at close range, and your point blank should 
be at close range. If you are going to shoot at game or objects up to 100 
yards, don't sight your rifle at over 75 or 80 yards, and use a gun that will 
give you as flat a trajectory as possible. 

I think that there is nothing v/orse in the line of rifle sights than a com- 
bination of a glittering sight in front that comes up to a knife edge at the 
top and the old-fashioned buckborn sight for the back sight. Take such a 
set of sights as this and shoot five shots toward the sun, and as niciy at each 
of the other points of the compass on a bright day, and compare the targets 
and note the result. One way you will shoot over, another under, another 
to one side, and so on, all owing to the reflection of light from your sights. 
When a boy I used such a set, and I could get a *'bead" as fine as the point 
of a cambric needle with them. At least it would appear so, but I always 
had to make so much allowance for which side the light struck that my 
shooting was very uncertain. 

^ou will probably get used to some set of sights and do good work with 
them, but keep your eyes open and be ready to adopt what is clearly proved 
to be in advance of what you have. A front sight should be broad, and 
especially in all quick shooting should you accustom yourself to a broad, 
large front sight. You can do just as fine shooting, and in quick shooting 



24 WING AND GLASS-BALL SHOOTING 

you can catch it mnch quicker. A good front sight that I have used I 
first in California, used by Dr. Chismore. It is made as follows : — 



saw- 





Cut 9. Cut 10. 

Front Sight, Back View. Front Sight, Side View. 

A piece from a silver quarter or half dollar filed down smooth on the 
sides and edges. The cuts 9 and 10 show the shape better than it can be 
described otherwise. The height will have to be determined entirely with 
regard to the shooting of your gun. Try the sights that come with the gun, 
and make your sights either the same height as these or higher ot lower as 
may be necessary. The sides of this sight want to be perfectly black, so 
that the light will not reflect from them. This you can probablj get a jew- 
eler to do for you cheaper and better than you can do it yourself. Then the 
top wants to be bright. Do not burnish it, but have it white, I mean. If 
you were going to shoot on the snow all the time, a sight of the same shape 
made of pure copper would be much better. 

For your back sight put on in place of the *' crotch" or **buckhorn"^ 
sight a plain oblong bar of dead black iron, nearly as long as your gun bar- 
rel is wide, and about three-sixteenths or an inch deep and wide. Into the 
back side of this should be set a piece of platinum wire (see cuts II and 12).. 




^^^^^^a 
1 ^^^ ^^ 



Cut II. Cut 12. 

Rear Sight, Side View. Rear Sight, Back View. 

It can be dovetailed in and fl ittened, coming to within a thirty -second part 
of an inch of the top, and running down to the bottom of the sight. The 
width of ih s sight will have to be governed entirely by the width of your 
front sight and the length of your gun barrel. It must, of course, be nar- 
rower than the front sight, as the intention is to have them appear just the 
same width when you look over the barrel of the gun at them. The line of 
dead iron at the top of the bar will always enable you to keep the two sights 
distinct, and they will never appear to be one and the same piece. The ad- 
vantages of having a rear sight that is flat on top are manifold. One of the 
most important things in shooting at any distance is to have your gun level 
and with a flat sight to look over ; it is much easier to accomplish this than 



WITH A RIFLE. 25 



with a sight that is notched. It is also much easier to tell just how much 
front sight you are using than with the old** buckhorn." 

The sight is a combination of the platinum wire and a sight that Judge 
Van Dyke uses. His rear sight is simply the iron bar, say half an inch long, 
and he has no notch in it, and no wire on the back to aid in finding the 
center. I hare tried this sight a little, but must admit that I have not tried 
it enough to say that I could not get used to it ; there are certainly great 
advantages about it. Judge Van Dyke is one of the most thorough students 
of rifle shooting living, and has adopted this rear sight after muci? careful 
research and experimenting, and it is well worth your while to give it a 
thorough trial. For his front sight he uses an oblong sight that is composed 
of iron in the center, gold, brass or silver at one end, and ivory, bone or 
agate at the other. If shooting on the snow, he would turn the end with the 
gold toward the eye; if shooting on bare ground, the other end; and if he 
wants to u>e the iron in the center, he can easily take off the ivory. They 
are fully described in the American Field, of October 17 and 24, 1885. 

A front sight that I have heard of but never seen I will try to describe. 
An oblong peice is set into the cross-iron that holds the sight in front, about 
one-sixteenth of an inch in width, one-fourth of an inch in heighth, and one- 
half of an inch long, with the end toward the breech of the gun. This end 
is cut out to a depth of one-eighth of an inch, leaving a shell all around of 
one -sixty-fourth of an inch in thickness; this leaves the solid part inside 
one -thirty-second cf an inch wide, and this is enameled a dead white. You 
can r adily see the advantages of this sight in connection with the rear sight, 
as described — the light would never strike it, and it would always show and 
never glisten. I am indebted to Mr. Robinson, whom I have previously 
spoken of in these pages, for this idea, and, although I have never tried it, I 
am anxious to do so, and think it would be a splendid sight. The cuts (13 
and 14) show you the idea, although the proportions are not exact. 



(^^^ 



Cut 13. Cut 14. 

Side View, showing one side and part of the top Rear View, 

cut away. 

The aim is to get a sight that will appear the same under all conditions 
of light, and you will never realize the difficulties in the way of doing this 
till you actually know from experience how much difference there is betwaen 
shooting on a bright, sun-shiny day and shooting the same distance when it 



26 WING AND GLASS-BALL SHOOTING. 

is cloudy, or between shooting in the woods and open fields. Whatever 
sights you have, try to get used as fast as possible to shooting toward the sun, 
away from it, sideways, and in all kinds of weather. Practice will do you 
more good than books, but even practice will not always enable you to judge 
just how to hold. This, of course, applies more to shooting at some distance 
than to close work; but you will go out some day when it will appear to you 
that the conditions of light are precisely the same that they were the day 
before, and will find that your average at, say, loo yards, will be two inches 
higher, or further to one side, than it was the day before, and the only way 
to account for it is the atmosphere. 

From what I have heard and seen, I think that in California and seme 
other Western States this is particularly true, for there is more apt to be a 
mirage than in the States farther east. 

You will also find that few people see things alike, when it comes to the 
matter of gun sights; and when your rifle is sighted just right for you, your 
friend who shoots it will very likely find it all wrong for him. 

Then, another thing that you will find is that shooting at a target on a 
range is a very different thing from shooting at gi'me in the woods and fields. 
You will soon get used to the ordinary changes of light on your range, but 
you will never get entirely used to the changes of light that you will find in 
actual hunting. According to the old theory, a good shot was what 
was called a line shot — that is, on a line with the bull's eye, up and do>^ n — 
even if it missed the bull's eye six inches at loo hundred yards. Don't let 
any such doctrine spoil you. A little practice will demonstrate to you that 
it is much easier to make a line shot at an unknown distance than it is to 
make a shot that is level with the bull's eye at a known distance. Now just 
remember that you do not need to waste time over shots that you can easily 
make ; put in your practice at shots that bother you. 

Whether in shooting up to 150 yards you should have your rear sight 
fixed, or raise it, or whether you should make an allowance by shooting high 
or low, or, again, whether you should vary the amount of front sight taken is 
a great question with riflemen. For my own part I have, of late years, found 
that I could do better work to have my rifle sighted for ordinary shooting in 
the field to about 60 yards; then, if I want to shoot 100 yards, as I often do, 
I can use a little more of the front sight, or, what is better, can hold a little 
higher, and if I want to shoot 30 or 40 yards I hold a little lower. 

A good many make all manner of fun of a man who thinks he can tell 
anything about the amount of front sight to use to shoot 125 yards when his 
rifle is sighted for 75 yards. I must beg leave to differ with them.' I think 
that practice will enable you to not only estimate the distance quite accurately, 
but will also enable you to estimate the amount of front sight to use, and I think 
that you will find it much harder to estimate the distance than the amount of 



WITH A RIFLE. 27 



front sight. You should always practice this when out in the woods and fields, 
if you care for rifle shooting. Look at some object ahead of you and estimate 
the distance, and then, as you walk it, count the steps ; you will find the benefit 
very soon. You should also learn to step correctly a yard. When measuring 
di<:tance, I can, with a little practice, step off 100 paces, and not miss its 
being 100 yards' more than 3 or 4 feet; but you will be surprised to find how 
much out of the way estimates of distance usually are in hunting. A man 
will shoot a quail and say, " Did you see that? Must have been 80 yards;" 
somebody else says, *' All of that." And I don't suppose they mean to lie 
about it, when they get home and tell about the shots they made at 80, 90 
and loo yards. Now, when you are in the field, just measure these long 
shots, after you get so you can step a yard each time, and you will probably 
find the 80- yard shots will mostly fall inside of 4o to 50. A quail 80 yards 
off, seen over the top of a gun-barrel, is a mighty small-looking bird; most 
men will let him go undisturbed when he g^ts that far away. But when you 
come to close work with a rifle it won't do to say 100 yards when you mean 
40, you must have some idea of the distance and hold accordingly. 

The Lyman sight is strongly recommended for quick shooting by many. 
I could never get used to it, and believe that for quick shooting, an open 
sight is far the best. There are dozens of sights patented, but I think you 
will find those spoken of in this chapter better than the majority. One 
thing you ought to be able to do, you ought to be able to give any gunsmith 
(unless he is a practical rifleman and used to shooting your gun) the dimen- 
tionsofaset of sights much better than he can get them up himself. If 
you do not take interest enough in the subject to do this, your rifle shooting 
won't amount to much. Study the subject, and have a reason that is good 
for whatever you do. And don't do it because some old antediluvian tells 
you It ^ the way, and the only way. 

Shooting with both eyes open is strongly recommended by many good 
riflemen; while I do not think it absolutely necessary, I do think there are 
great advantages about it. Ifyou will get in the habit of shooting in this 
way you will soon find them out. Don't say you can't do it, or decide you 
can't after trying half a dozen shots. What do five or six shots amount to? 
Try a few hundred, and then you can judge better. Whtn you use both 
eyes you see things just as you usually do, and when you shut one eye you 
do not, unh-ss you have had the misfortune to loose one eye. Now, to illu- 
strate this, look at some object that is quite small, say as large as the point 
of a lead-pencil, or as as large as a No. 5 shot, from a distance of six or 
eight feet, and then shut one eye and step rapidly forward and try to put 
your finger on it. A little experimenting of this kind will prove to you that 
you can see your target much better with two eyes than with one. ( 

Recollect also that the target is not the only thing that you want to see 



28 WING AND GLASS-BALL SHOOTING. 

distinctly. A target, with its clear cut outlines, is a very different thing to 
see from a rabbit sitting in dead leaves 60 yards away, or a bird's head at 
half that distance, and when you begin to draw down fine on such an object, 
you will need all the eyesight that you have, and not only this — you will 
need a sight that you can depend on. Voa will be apt to fall into the belief that 
your game will look like your target, until you get out in the fields to hunt, 
and for this reason get out as soon as possible, as I have s lid before, where 
you will get a naiur.il light to shoot by, and shoot at natural objects. Select 
some old knot on a tree at s >me distance that you do not know but can only 
guess at, and fire five shots at it as rapidly as you can, or shoot at something 
that blends so with the surroundings that you can scarcely see it when you 
look at it over your rifle-barrel. This kind of practice will do you more 
good than anything else when it comes to practical work. 

You will find another tendency also, to shoot over in shooting down-hill, 
and under in shooting up; and your tendency to overshoot down-hill, will 
be aggravated in quick shooting if you do not attend to it, but that is the 
very essence of quick shooting. If you are accustomed to the slow, delibe- 
rate ways of the ordinary target shooter, and get out alter game that is watch- 
ing you and liable to bid you adieu in about two seconds, you will naturally 
get rattled, and not shoot nearly as well as usual, but if you are used to 
shooting in one-half a second, you will feel confidence in yourself, and know 
that the two seconds are ample time — not that I would advi-e you to always 
shoot at game that quick. If you have a long shot to make, and your game 
cannot see you, t ike time to calculate the distance carefully, and arrange 
your sights, but if you have to make a quick shot, and the time may ccme 
when your life will depend on it, you will shoot quick at any ordinary dis- 
tance just as well as you would if you took half a minute for the shot, and 
better. 

CHAPTER X. 

• SHOT CARTRIDGES, AND SUNDRY HUMBUGS. 
Rifle shooting has taken such a wonderful advance in the last few years, 
and so many are getting to shoot well, that possibly this is one reason that 
the professional has felt it incumbent on himself to do something, or, rather, 
appear to do something, that was next to impossible. 

As the public were educated up to the point of doing the things they saw 
done with a rifle, something else new and wonderful had to be put forth, or 
else they tired of the exhibition. 

So the shot cartridge was invented. Most of them are covered with 
paper, but I have heard on good authority that those used at first by some of 
the professionals a couple of years ago were covered with lead. At any rate. 



WITH A RIFLE. . 29 



the paper-covered ones are now advertised by a leading house from 22 short 
caliber, containing about 100 chilled No. 12 shot, up to 50-52 caliber for the 
Spencer riflf^. The 44 caliber Winchester shells are loaded with No. 6 and 8 
shot, and are now advertised as suitable, among other things, for breaking 
glass balls. 

It seems a pity that some of the best professional shots should resort to 
this kind of work to keep up a reputation, when the shooting that they 
actually do is hard enough. The worst part of it is that they discourage 
people who would otherwise try to learn quick shooting with a rifle. No 
doubt new and difficult shots with a rifle will be continually brought out. 
Don't condemn a thing as a humbug until you know, and, on the other 
hand, because a man ran hit pennies in the air, smash stones, and break one 
of tiie pieces again, with a repeating rifle, before it strikes the ground, don't 
swallow another feat that looks impossible, simply because he appears to do it. 
That is to say, when he gets on a pony's back, and it is announced in grand- 
iloquent s yle that a man will ride ahead of him and throw up glass balls, 
and he will follow — both horses being on the run — and break them, take this 
with a fe-v grains of caution. If the man can really do this with solid balls, 
he will invite am examination of the cartridges that he uses for the purpose. 
I don't mean that he will show you a bcx of cartridges, and then go off to the 
starting-point to load his gun. I mean that he will give you a perfectly fair 
chance to see that his gun is loaded with genuine ball cartridges. And when 
you find a man that does this, and then brt aks glass balls thrown up ahead of 
him, with both horses on the run, I want you to write me and tell me about 
it, and I will go a long way to see it done. I don't know that it is impossi- 
ble, but I have very good reasons for believing that it is improbable. There 
are some other feats of the same kind that need investigation before you put 
implicit confidence in them. Such as holding the rifle behind one's back and 
breaking falling glass balls. In all such exhibitions let there be some frood 
rifleman who is well known to examine all the cartridges useH, and give the 
performer credit for what he can really do; but if he tries to humbug you, 
just drop his exhibitions, and advise your friends to do the same. A few 
lessons of this kind will perhaps be the cause of more honest shooting in the 
fu'ure. 

In the American Fields of June, 18S4, I think, an article appeared 
headed, *' The bullets Dr. Carver uses for breaking glass balls." It went on 
to state thit a gentleman in Kansas who was at Omaha at the time the Wild 
West exibition started from there, told the writer that Carver used a *' bullet" 
composed of shot with a coverinii^of lead for some of his more difficult feats. 
Soon after Cirver wrote an allege I reply to the article, which I will quote in 
full. It i- so thoroughly mode-t and retiring in its t^ne that it should be 
preserved. 



30 . WING AND GLASS-BALL SHOOTING 



" Chicago, III. 
"Editor * American Field'; 

** Nearly two years have passed since 1 wrote my last letter to your most 
valuable paper, and I was in hopes of being permitted to pass the rest of my 
shooting days in quietness, as the one great ambition of my life — to become 
a Caesar — had been realized, and I might say that there was but little leJt 
of interest for me in the shooting world, more than to see the young and 
ambitious sportsman equal, if not excel, me in all the shooting I have ever 
done. But as the years roll by and no one possesses sufficient merit to take my 
place, neces.^ity compels me to retain the greatest reputation of any living 
marksman. I would shout with joy to see a thorough gentleman surpass 
the best shooting I have ever done a thousand fold and leave me in quiet 
possession of the great reputation of being the originator of flying shots with 
a rifle. 

"It is very much easier for one to imitate than to originate, and as yet 
all of my ideas are used by sportsmen, and in seven years 1 see no improve- 
ment over the style of rifle shooting which I first introduced to the world. I 
followed not in the footsteps of others, but used my own head; and the good 
sense which it contained has made me what I am. One great fault of some 
sportsmen is too much ambition, and their desire to become the first man in 
the world makes them jealous, and this feeling will remain for many genera- 
tions until the time comes when all lovers of the gun are sportsmen and gen- 
tlemen. I expect to be gone before that time, and when I look down irom 
the happy hunting grounds and watch the sports below, I hope to see the then 
great champion use a solid bullet and not a hollow ball filled with shoi, as 
Howard, of Racine, Wis., accuses me of using. Such a charge as this, com- 
ing from such a critic, is most crushing, and I feel that he has fully explained 
the secret of my shouting and given me dead away. 

, *' I would, with Howard's permission, like very much to dispute his state- 
ment and accuse him of thoughtlessness and want of consideration, and being 
only desirous of gaining a point, he has shown of what his nature is composed 
and permitted some one to deceive him to a great extent. 

*' Howard says: * Carver uses shot and sheet lead in his rifle.' Now, any 
sportsman in the world will recognize the fact that shot will smash a stone to 
pieces or shoot a hole through a piece of silver or cause an orange to dis- 
appear as if by magic. Wise man, Howard ! As he obtained three bullets 
from one of my servants, perhaps he can produce one of the bullets with 
proof of his statement if I give him a hundred dollars for it. How bad the 
other sportsmen will feel to think I have deceived them for so many years, 
and Howard will get all the credit for his gentlemanly exposure. 

(Signed) 

** Dr. W. F. Carver." 



WITH A RIFLE. 31 



The article in question did not deny tkat Carver was one of the fihest 
living shots with a rifle. It said nothing about his " smashing a stone, or 
shooting a hole through a piece of silver, or causing an orange to disappear 
as if by magic,'* with a load of shot, and what the necessity of lugging all 
that in for is more than I can see. It did say, however, that the writer 
doubted his being able to hold a rifle behind his back and break glass balls 
with scarcely a miss. And he might have added that he didn't believe a 
man could do the horseback feat with a sona ball. 

You will notice in Carver's answer that he does not come out squarely 
and deny that he has ever used such shells, and that he does not offer the 
;^ 1 00.00 for a sample, but he indulges in a lot of talk about being the origi- 
nator of flying shots with a rifle. Any man who has ever read the literature 
of our country knows that this is all gammon, and that there were dozens of 
men in this country who could make flying shots with a rifle before Carver 
was big enough to carry a gun. 

I wish to call your attention to one thing in the above article. Carver 
says: ** One great fault of some sportsmen is too much ambition, and their 
de-vire to become the first man in the world makes them jealous, and this 
feeling will remain for many generations until the time comes when all lovers 
of the gun are sportsmen and gentlemen." Now I do like to see people take 
pride in a gun and their ability to handle it well, but if your love for a gun is 
going t ) lead you to believe any such nonsense as the above, that your being 
able to hold it better than any one else will make you the first man in tne 
world, and put you above philosophers, savants, philanthropists, and every 
one eke, you had better throw away your gun and go the primary school for 
awhile, and see if they can't, by some means, teach you a little common 
sense. 

The Dr.'s modest ways have been so thoroughly and scathingly written 
up by "Gaucho" and others, that further comment on them is unnecessary. 
Only remember that when you see him or any one else perform seemingly 
impossible feats, investigate them. 

A few years ago *^ Prince Otto," as he was called, was the wonder of the 
Pacific Coast. He was an Indian boy who was said to be specially gifted, 
and could shoot as well through a screen as he could with everything in 
plain view. No one was allowed to see his sights or examine his guns, how- 
ever. And there was among good riflemen an impression that the thing was 
a humbug from beginning to end. When I was in California, a year ago, I 
met Prince Oito. He had given up shooting, and was perfectly willing to 
tell me all about his feats. One thing that he did was to shoot at a polished 
steel plate and have the ball glance off at an -ingle and break a glass ball 
that was hidden from him by a screen. This he told me was honest work, 
and required more practice than anything he ever undertook. The steel was so 



32 WING AND GLASS-BALL SHOOTING 

bright that it was difficult to hit the same spot every time; but by constant 
practice he succeeded in doing it. The feat that appeared the most difficult 
perhaps was shooting through a screen, through the barrel of a pistol behind 
the screen, splitting the ball on the edge of a razor that was at the rear end 
of the pistol, and breaking a glass ball with each half of the bullet. 

This seemed simply impossible, but ** seeing was believing," and hun- 
dreds saw him do it. Of course, if the bullet went through the pistol barrel 
the rest was easy enough. It would split on the razor, and the glass balls 
being hung in just the proper p jsition would be broken, each by one-half of 
the bullet. But the thing was how could he hit the "hole'* in the pistol 
barrel ? It seems that exactly six inches above the pistol barrel was a tack. 
He did not tell me in so many words that his rifle was sighted to shoot six 
inches low at that distance, but I inferred so from what he said. Then you 
see what an easy matter it was to hold for the head of the tack and ** bring 
down the house." 

Another feat that he did was partly humbug and partly skill. A g'ass 
ball was suspended irom a bar. His gun was laid on the floor, and be was 
blindfolded. He then took a certain number of steps forward, picked up the 
gun, turned round three times, took aim — if it can be called taking aim with 
your eyes blindfolded — and fired. He usually broke the ball, too. Now 
for the explanation of this seeming impossibility. His eyes were not blind- 
folded so that it prevented his seeing his feet. When he took the steps for- 
ward to where his gun lay he could see it all the time, and when he picked 
it up there was a place marked for his feet. He stood in just such a position 
all the time, and constant practice in that position enabled him to hold the 
gun right from the sen>e of feeling. It was good shooting, even if it Wc s not 
all what it appeared to be. 

There were a number of other things about his exhibition that were well 
worth seeing I am told. He went through a Zouave drill that was very fine, 
and could handle a gun splendidly. You will notice, however, that when he 
arrived at the part of the exhibition, that was a "gift," it was merely a 
gift of sleight of hand. So I say to you again, be slow to believe in impos- 
sibilities, and when any man comes along and says he is "gifted," so that he 
can perform feats with a rifle that no other man living can, set him down as 
an arrant humbug of the first water. 

Shooting with a card over the end of the gun barrel is simple enough if 
you keep both eyes open. You can understand this better by trying it than 
I can explain it; but by using both eyes you can apparently see right through 
the card. Also, shooting over the shoulder by the aid of a looking-glass, is 
as easy as holding your gun out as you usually do. 

In holding the gun upside down on you ■ head, remember the tendency 
will be to shoot low. 



WITH A RIFLE. 33: 



CHAPTER XL 

SOME FANCY SHOOTING. 

I do not think I can begin this chapter better than with an account of' 
the shooting that I saw Miss Lillian Smith, a thirteen old girl, of California 
do. I had heard of her shooting, and when at Sacramento had the pleasure^ 
of seeing her. 

She is not strong enough yet to hold out and shoot a heavy gun, and for 
this reason it is hard to tell what she will be able to do when she gets older, . 
but I think I am entirely safe in saying that with a 22-caliber Ballard rifle 
her equal does not exist. 

She also handles a Winchester — that made by Kline & Carr, of San 
Francisco — faster than I have ever seen any one else do it. 

When she was nine years of age her father gave her a pony, a dog, and 
the little Ballard Rifle that she still shoots. After a few days practice about 
the ranch she went out hunting, and they were very much surprised a short 
time afterwards to see her return with several birds, two or three jack rabbits,, 
and some other game, I forget what. 

The first shot she made for me was a double shot with the Winchester. 
A ball was suspended a few inches from the ground, and another put in a 
trap, similar to the one already described in the foregoing pages. It only 
threw the ball 3 feet high, however, and at the word "ready" she fired 
at the suspended ball, and at the same instant the trap was sorung, and 
before the ball struck the floor it was broken by her second bullet. 

She then shot at the edge of an ordinary playing card, at a distance of 
32 feet, the card being set in the nose of a swinging deer. After shooting at 
it three times she complained that it was not set straight, and on examination 
I found she had already hit it twice, and if the card had been straight she 
would have cut it in two both shots. It was then changed so as to be 
straight, and at the first attempt she cut it clear through. This shooting was 
all done by lamplight remember. 

An arrangement was then put up by which a ball was swung around in 
a horizontal circle very rapidly ; in fact it went so fast that it kept out almost 
level with the end of the cord where it was fastened. The circle described 
was about to feet in diameter, and at the second attempt she broke the ball, 
and then broke tvvo or three in succession without a miss. If you do not 
think it difficult try it witjh a skot-^un sometime. 

She then made a charm for me o'lt of a dime. A piece of soft pine was 
selected, and the dime placed against it with the flat side toward her, a small, 
point pricked in the upper edge with a penknife, about ^1^ of an inch from 
the edge, showed her where to aim, and if she did not hit it in just that 



34 WING AND GLASS-BALL SHOOTING 



particular spot; the dime was ruined. She hit it, and did it a number of 
times. Howard Carr, who is the best target shot on the Pacific Coast with a 
heavy rifle, tried seven times to do the same thing and gave it up in disgust, 
and when Carr gets tired trying at steady shooting it is discouraging work to 
take up. When the dime is struck just right it looks almost like a horse's 
foot and ankle. 

Then she shot at a small bulPs eye, JE^-inch, I think, at the same dis- 
tance that she did all her shooting, 32 feet, the test was to shoot a Ballard 
rifle twenty-five times in a minute. This she did and had a couple of 
seconds to spare. And what was wonderful about it was that most of the 
shots were bulPs eyes. I had not thought it possible before this, that a single 
loader could be fired so rapidly, and can hardly understand it yet as I look 
back at it, that she could go through all the motions so smoothly, as I stood 
and watched her it looked very simple and easy, try it. It is good practice. 

Among her other targets was a jack rabbit of cast iron, so arranged that 
when you hit the bull's eye, which was about where the heart would come, 
he would turn a somerset quite rapidly. Several times I saw her hit the 
^-inch bull's eye, and as the rabbit turned over put two balls in his head 
before he came to a stop, 

I will not attempt to say how fast she can shoot with the Winchester 
already spoken of. It seemed to me, without any exaggeration, that the gun 
gave out a steady stream of fire from the first shot to the end of the twenty- 
five cartridges. 

One of her favorite shots with a Winchester is to shoot at a lot of glass 
balls that are suspended from a board that swings, and have the balls filled 
with water. As each one breaks, it makes quite a splash. One night, at 
one of the theaters where she was giving an exhibition, an army officer who 
could not believe that the shooting was genuine, wanted to get behind the 
scenes where he could see it better. He was placed in a good position, and 
he stayed there till that part of the performance was over much against his 
-will. He was so hemmed in with "flies" and stage scenery that the only 
way out was where she was shooting, so he waited. When he came out he 
^was soaked from head to foot, and a thorough believer in Miss Smith's shoot- 
ing abilities. 

T have not space to give many of her performances, but will put in a few. 
During the holidays, in 1883, at Hollister, Cal., she attended a turkey shoot. 
The distance was 200 yards, but as she had only her 22-caliber Ballard they 
proposed that she should shoot at 150. She bagged four turkeys in succes- 
sion, and then the proprietor thought he had sold her enough at that price. 
Then she proposed that they suspend a glass ball from a string at 100 yards, 
and she would shoot at that. She took one sighting shot, and then broke 
three in succession — that finished the man with the turkeys. On June 28, 



WITH A RIFLE. 



35 



1883, at Hollister, Cal., she made 20 shots in one minute at a Creedmore 
target with her 22- caliber Ballard, at a distance of 90 feet, making 78 out of 
a possible 100. Same place, July 21, 1883, she shot 30 shots with her Win- 
chester in fifteen seconds, hitting an 8-inch bull's eye every time, distance 
not given. 

Up to 100 yards, off-hand and shooting on time, for both speed and ac- 
curacy with a Ballard single-loader, she has had an open challenge standing 
for a long time, but no one seems to accept it. 

All the shooting that I saw her do was perfectly fair and square, and 
I would very much like to see her pitted against some of those that talk so 
much about vvhat they can do, but never get down to a match. 

A very pretty shot that I saw Dr. Chismore make at San Francisco, was 
done as follows: He placed in the bull's eye (i)^ inch) a government 
bullet, and as the target was in motion he shot past the bullet and rang the 
bell the first shot, and the second hit the bullet fair on the end, with a 22-cal- 
iber rifle, distance 32 feet. He recently sent me ^ fac simile of a target he 
made with a Winchester express, at 50 yards with a rest, five consecutive 
shots. It is given below. Four of the bnlls are all in one hole, and can 
almost be covered with a nickel, and one in the edge. 




While at San Francisco I saw Mr. Robinson (whom I have previously 
Wientioned) shoot fifteen consecutive sh(>ts with a 32-caliher Winchester with 



36 WING AND GLASS-BALL SHOOTING 



a rest at icx) yards; two of the shots were outside of a 3-inch circle about $£. 
and }i of an inch, but, notwithstanding this, the sirii.g measure of the whole 
fiUeeii shots was only 14^ inches. Ihe shooting was quite rapid too about 
5 seconds to each bhot, vvnich, taking into consideration the foCt that Mr. R 
was in poor health, and had a bad place to sight from, is, I think, very fine 
shooting. 

This was done with a Lyman sight, I must admit, and I saw him do 
very fine work with it besides, but he had to change it continually. 

The West furnishes a great many fine shots, especially with a revolver. 
This I have not spoken of before, as it does not come in under the title of 
the book, still, a few remarks about it may not be out of place. 

It is supposed by many that a good shot with a revolver does not see 
the sights. This, like the rifle shooting, I think from all I can learn, is a 
mistake. I have talked with a number of the finest pistol shots living, who 
could shoot as fast as the revolver would work, and do good execution, and 
without an exception they have told me that they always sighted the revolver, 
like the rifle. You have plenty of time to do so, and the part of the business- 
that requires ^kill mainly, is to bring the revolver to the correct place ever} 
time. Keep your eye on your object and bring the revolver quickly up, anc; 
when it comes to the level of the eye. it should be properly sighted. 

A good weapon that I have seen for practice, is a 44-caliber revolver^ 
with the catch taken out so it would not turn, and a 22-caliber barrel put 
inside of the barrel of the large one, and run clear through the cylinder, an'd 
an extractor arranged so that when you threw up the barrel to reload, you 
would extra t the shell. It should have at least a 3-pound pull, and by 
using such a weapon you pret used to the action and handling of the 44-caliber. 






Portraits of great Trotters, Pacers, 

and Runners, Hunting and Game, 

Yachts, Steamers, &c. 

Size Sheet 13J x 17|. Price 25 cents each. Five for $1.00. 
Sent promptly by mail, post-paid, to any part of the 
United States, on receipt of price. 

ADDRESS ALL. ORDERS TO 

RENNIE & ALLSON MANUFACTURING CO.. 

725 Filbert Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 



TROTTERS 

All are represented trotting to 
otherwise stated 

TNIauf! S., 

Jay-Eye-See, . 

,St. Julien, 

Edwin Forrest, 

Maxy Cobb, . 

Karns, 

Phallas, . 

Trinket, . 

CMingstone, . 

Goldsmith Maid 

Hopeiul, 

liUla, . 

Harry Wilkes, 

:Ethan Allen (to wagon, with 

mate), 
Smuggler, . 
liuciile Golddust 
Darby, 

AnuM-ican Girl, 
<Jhaiiie Ford, . 
Piedmont, 
O^laok Cloud, . 
l^extei;, , 
.Santa Clans, 
Ilannis, . 
Lady Tliorne, . 
Judge Fullerton, 
Red Cloud,! 
Nettie, . 
Dick Swiveller, 
Proteine, 
Robert McGregor 
Lticy, 

Monroe Chief, . 
Midnight 
Alley, . 

Francf»'s Alexander 
Wedgewood, 
Ponosetter, . 



Sulky, unless 



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2.16^^ 
. 2.163^ 

2.16% 
. 2.17)^ 

2.17>4 
. 2.17M 

2.17^2 
. 2.17% 

2.18 
. 2.18 

2.18 
. 2.18 

2.18 
. 2.18 

2.18 
. 2.18»4 

2.1.SS' 
. 2.1SU 

2.19 
. 2.19 

2.19 
. 2.1U 



Croxie, 

Bodine, ... 

Moose, 

Camors, .... 

Flora Temple, . 

Fleety Golddust, . 

Henry, ... 

Captain Lewis, . 

Voltaire, . . . , 

Sam Purd3% . 

Gov. Sprague, . 

Driver, .... 

Lucille, . . . . 

Hambrino, . 

Jay Gouid, 

Police Gazette, . 

Blackwood, Jr., 

Steve Maxwell, 2 miles, 

Huntress, 3 miles, . 



2.19)^ 

2.19^^ 

2.193>^ 

2.19% 

2.19% 

2.20 

2.20 

2. 20^4 

2.2034 

2.20>^ 

2.20^^ 

2.203'^ 

2.21 

2.21M 

2.21^^ 

2.22 

2.223^ 

4.4832' 

7.2 I3i 



THE CALIFORNIA WONDERS. 

HindaRose (in yearling form), . . 2.3633 
Wildflower (in two-year-old torm, 



2.21 



PACERS. 

All to Sulkies. 



Johnston 2.00^ 

Little Brown Jug 2.11% 

Sleepy Tom, 2.12^4 

Rowdy Bov, 2.13% 

Mattio-Huhtei , 2.15 

Lucy 2.14 

Sweetser, 2.1 > 

SoT-rel Dan, 2.14 

Lucy, Sweetser, and Sleepy George ( Race). 

TROTTING RACES. 

Smuggler against Fullerton (to Sulkies.) 
Dexter airainst Butler (to Wagon.'^). 
Goldsmith Maid airainsi Lucy (to Sulkies.) 
Dexter asrainst Ethan Allen and Mate (to 
Sulky and Wagon). 



RarusCto Sulky) against Great Eastern (to 
Saddle). 

Goldsmith Maid against Fullerton (to Sul- 
kies). 

. ROAD TEAMS. 

Mr. Vanderbilt's Maud S. and Aldine, 2.15K. 
Mr. Work's Edward and Swiveller, 2.16X. 
Mr. Vanderbilt's Small Hopes and Lady Mac 
Mr. Vanderbilt's Lysander and Leander. 
Trotters on theSnow (Boston style). 
A Team That Takes No Dust. 
Two-Twenty on the Road. 

RUNNERS. 

All in action except Blackburn, Woodford, and 



Ft^eeland. 



Iroquois. 

Foxhall. 

Hindoo. 

Parole. 

Mollie McCarthy. 

Ten Broeck. 

Tom Ochiltree. 



Harry Bassett. 
Longfellow. 
Tom Bowling. 
Falsetto. 
Spendthrift. 
Luke Blackburn. 
Miss Woodford. 



Freeland. 

RUNNING RACES. 

Iroquois Winning the Derby. 
Bassett against Longfellow. 
Parole against Ten Broeck and Ochiltree. 
Duke of Magenta, Spartan and Bramble. 
Dandy, New York and Deadhead (Hurdle 
Race). 

CELEBRATED RACING AND 
TROTTING SIRES. 

All in the Field, 
Imported Messenger. Mambrino. 
American Eclipse. Hambletonian. 
Woodford Mambrino (in stable). 
Volunteer. Lexington. 

Geo. Wilkes. 

HUNTING AND GAME. 

Rabbit Catching. Bass Fishing. 

Squirrel Hunting. Prairie Hens. 

Ruffed Grouse. Canvas-back Ducks. 

Flushing aWoodcock. Duck Shooting. 

Partridge Shooting. Woodcock Shooting. 

English Snipe. Woodcock. 

A Stanch Pointer. A Well-Bred Setter. 

Deer Shooting. Bear Hunting. 

Mating in the Woods— Partridges. 

Shooting on the Prairies. 

Hunting on the Plains. 

Wild Turkey Shooting. 

Trapping Beaver. Salmon Fishing. 

Pickerel Fishing on Ice. 

Sportsmen— Going Out. 

Sportsmen Camping in Woods. 

Sportsmen Returning to Camp. 

Wood Duck. Brook Trout. 

Pickerel. Striped B iss. 

Cod Fishing. Blue Fishing. 

Rail Shooting. Quail. 

Brook Trout Fishing. Shooting on the Beach 

Huuntsof Wild Swan. 

Just Caught— A String of Fish. 

Dead Game— Quail. A Prize Setter. 



Dead Woodcock and Partridge. 

Hunting in Northern Woods. 

Setter and W^oodcock. 

Tempted— Trout. Hooked— Trout. 

Quail Shooting. Snipe Shooting, 

Moose and Wolves. American Buffaloes- 

A Well- Broken Retriever. 

Champion Irish Setter "Rover." 

A Main of Cocks. Down, Charge ! 

Champions of the Field. 

The Death Shot— Stag. 

Ready for Battle— Stag. 

Defiance— Stag. • Stag at Baj'. 

Deer and Fawn. 

YACHTS AND STEAMERS. 

Ship Great Republic. Steamship Frisia^ 

Steamship Great Eastern— Side. 

Through the Bayou by Torchlight. 

Whale Fishery— In a Flurry. 

Attacking a Right Whale. 

The R. E. Lee and Natchez— Race. 

Burning Steamship Golden Gate. 

Burning Steamship Austria. 

Steamboats on the Sound— Moonlight. 

Little Ship Red, White and Blue. 

Steamship Ville de Paris. 

Clipper in a Snow Squall. 

Steamship Periere. Yacht Madeleine 

Yacht Countess of Dufferin. 

Yacht America. Yaclu Sappho. 

Yacht Meteor. Yacht Cambria. 

Yacht Dauntless. Yacht Vesta. 

Yacht Henrietta. Yacht Fleetwing, 

Steam Yacht Anthracite. 

Scotch Cutter Madge. Steamship Egypt^ 

Pilot Boat in a Storm. 

New York Ferry Boat. 

Steamship Spain. On the Hudson. 

On the Mississippi. Loading Cotton. 

A Race on the Mississippi. 

Bound Down the River. 

Moonlight on the Misssissippi. 

Sappho and Livonia— Cup of 1871. 

Steamship Oceanic. Steamship Adriatic, 

Ice Boat Race on the Hudson. 

Nipped in the Ice. Outward Bound. 

Wreck of the Atlantic. 

Homeward Bound. Steamboat Bristol. 

Steamb't Providence. Steamboat Drew. 

Steamboat Rhode Island. 

Wreck of the Schiller. 

Clipper Dreadnaujrht. 

Red Jacket in the Ice. 

Loss of the Ville du Havre. 

Steamship City of Montreal. 

Steamship City of Peking. 

Steanjship Bothnia. Steamboat Albany. 

Squall off Cape Horn. 

Clipper in a Hurricane. 

Clipper Three Brothers. 

Steamship California. 

Steamship City of Berlin. 

Midnight Race on the Misssissippi. 

Burning of the Narragansett. 

The Night Express. Ott a Lee Shore. 

The Lightning Express. 

The Express Train. The Through Express 

Steam Catamaran "H. W. Longfellow.*^' 




NOTICE OUR SPECIAL BARGAIN 
PRICE ON THESE GUNS. 



The most SATISFACTORY small rifle offered to the American public, anrl the 
lowest in price. (Compare tliese with Remington and other guns at 50 i»ei- cent, kiglici*- 
price.) The action of these rifles works thus : the guard and breech block are one 
piece of forged and case-barclened Nor^way Iron, and when lever drops down it 
removes breech piece and extracts the shell. There is no possibility ofhlowivg ovt back- 
ward, nor exploding the shell to the danger of the shooter, and the hammer cannot go 
down except when tlie breech nlock is in place. They have graceful pistol-sroek 
grip, come up the shouldernj*c^//f/and have handsomest ^valnut stocks we ever saw. 
The rubber buttjiiece is a work of art. All these guns have blued octagon barrels, made of 
best decarbonized steel, German silver front sights, and are carefully sighted for accurate 
shooting. We can furnish globe and peep sight for fine work and in skilled hands 
these guns will do wonderful shooting. We have sold these guns widelj', and the 
targets made by our customers are not exce lied by any in the country. The 22- 
calibre Piei)er is taking the place of air-guns for target practice, and, by the use ol br( ech 
caps, they make no noise and are Fafe to shoot anywhere that an air-gun can be used. 

TARGET RIFLES. 

Few of our readers appreciate the value of 22-calibre rifles nor the variety of uses to 
vvhich they can be put. Loaded with a long cartridge our 22-calibre Pieper gun will 
shoot, accurately up to *i50 yards, and the course of the bullet will be as little affected 
by wind and gravity as heavy calibres. The same gun loaded with a breech cap (small 
cartridge) will shoot without making the slightest noise, and have a penetration not even 
dangerous in the house. These breech caps up to 40 yards will shoot with remarkable 
accuracy. If you cannot procure them, we can pack them in with the guns at the lew 
price of $1.70 per 1000. 

OUR SFECIAI. BARaAZN PRICES. 

To widely introduce the PIEPER RIFTiE, we have decided for a short time to ofr< r 
_, , .„ , them at the Zoiz; prices.* 

U^' h i^ ^^^•' 24-in- octagon bar., pistol grip, Eng. wal. stock, rubber butt, 7^4 lbs., $11 5'0 
No. 2, 22 •' 20 " *' " '* «« 75^ lbs 12 40 

No. 3, 32 " 28 " •• « " " /^..iDS., J-4U 

No. 4. 38 " 28 •' «• " " " «• i^ 2.% 

Globe and Peep Sights, extra, per set, 2 45 

All above are rim fire. 

Any two of these rifles, |23.00. 

Get a friend to order with you and make the discount. 

Remit by bank draft, money order or registered letter and get our Aill catalogue. 

Any of these rifles sent C. O. D. with privilege of examination on receipt or!?l.(Xl cash 
with order. Balance to be paid to express agent. Address 
RENNIE 4fc AL.L.SON 3IFG. CO., No. 725 Filbert St., Philadelphia, Pa. 



HOW TO MAKE POULTRY PAY. 



NEW PUBLICATIONS OF FRANKLIN NEWS COIVIPANY. 

"MONEY IN POTATOES." 400 Bushels to the Acre as a Field Crop. 

A complete Instructor for the Potato Crrower. Illustrated. Our gystem fully ex- 
plained In seventeen chapters. Fifty-six well-printed pages and a handsome cover, coutaiuini; 
chapters fully explaining the following new ideas, and showing these essential points in potato raising: Se^ 
lection of Ground — Desirable soils, soils to be avoided, virgin soil, clover soil. Manure and its- 
Application— Feed the land well and it will feed you. Cutting the Seed— Single eye ; yields resulting 
from different amounts of seed. Planting— Time of planting ; distance apart. Cultivating— Harrow and 
cultivator, shovel plow, hoe ; level vs. hilling. Bugs and Worms— The White Grub, the Wire Worm, the 
Colorado Potato Bug. Harvesting— Time of digging, potato diggers, hand implements, plow sorting, 
handy crates, Seed Potatoes— Production of new varieties, their dissemination ; local or shipping trade ; 
high breeding. If you have an acre you intend to plant in potatoes, it will pay you to buy this book. Free. 
by mail, for 50 cents in stamps or postal note. 

'*WING AND GL.ASS BAL.Ii SHOOTING WITH A RIFI.E." 

Teaches how to shoot on the wing with a rifle, and unfolds many of the mysteries thrown around 
r«nap shooting with a rifle by professionals. The most useful book, to any one who wishes to become an ex- 
pert with a rifle, ever published. Less than a month's practice, under these instructions, will make an ex- 
j)ert. Price, by mail, 50 cents. 

NEW ISSUES OF THE MARVELOUS lilBRARY. 

Complete Novels and Other Works, by Famous Authors. Almost Given Away! 

The following books are published in neat pamphlet form, many of them handsomely illustrated) 
:and all are printed from good type upon good paper. They treat of a great variety of subjects, and 
we think no one can examine the list without finding therein many that he or she would like to possess. In 
.cloth-bound form these books would cost $1.00 each. Each book is complete in itself. 



1. The Widow Bedott Papers. This is the 
book over which your grandmothers laughed till they 
• cried, and it is jiist as funny to-day as it ever was. 

2. Fancy Work for llome Adornment, an 
-entirely new work upoa this subject, containing easy 
rand practical instructions for makiir^ fancy baskets, 

wall pockets, brackets, needle work, embroidery, etc., 
etc., profuselv and elegantly' illustrated. i 

3. Grinm's Fairy Stories for the Young. 
The finest collection of fairy stories ever publi lied. 
The children will be delighted with them. 

4. The Lady of the Lake. By Sir Walter Scott. 
■" The Lady of the Lake" is a romance in verse, and of 

blithe works of Scott none is more beautiful than this. 

5. Manual of Etiquette for Ladies and Gentle- 
men, a guile to politeness and good breeding, giving 
tthe rules of modern etiquette for all occasions. 

6. The Standard Letter Writer for Ladies 
-and Gentlemen, a complete guide to correspondence, 

giving plain directions for the composition of letters of 
every kind, with innumerable forms and examples. 

7. "Winter Evening Recreations, a large col- 
tection of Acting Charades, Tableaux, Games, Puz- 
ws, etc., for social gathwings, private theatricals, 
and evenings at home ; illustrated. 

8. Dialogues, Recitations and Readings, 
a large and choice collection for school exhibitions 
.and public and private entertainments. 

9. Parlor Ma^ic and Chemical Expert- 
ments, a book which tells how to perform hundreds 

-of amusing tricks in magic and instructive experi- 
ments with simple agents. 

10. The Home Cook Book and Family 
Physician, containing hundreds of excellent cook- 
ing recipes and hints to housekeepers, also telling 
how to cure all common ailments by simple home 
remedies.'' 



Lands, a very interesting and instructive book of 
travels, describing the peculiar life, habits, manners 
and customs of the people oJ foreign countries; illus. 

12. Sixteen Complete Stories by Popular Au- 
t'lors, embracing ]o\e, humorous and detective sto- 
ries, stories of society life, of adventure, of railway 
life, etc., all very interesting. 

13. The Budget of W^it, Rumor and Fun, 
a large collection of the funny stories, sketches, anec- 
dotes, poems, and jokes that have been written for 
some years ; illustrated. 

14. Useful Knowledge for the Million, a 
handy book of u.^elul information for all upon many 
and various subjects ; illustrated. 

15. Called Back. A Novel. By Hugh Conway, 
author of '• Daik Days," etc. 

16. At the World's Mercy. A Novel. Bj 
Florence Warden, author of "The House on tM 
Marsh." etc. 

17. Mildred TrcTunion. A NoveL By "The 
Duchess," author of 'Molly Bawn," etc. 

18. Dark Days. A Novel. By Hugh Conway, 
author of " Called Back," etc. 

19. The Mystery of the Holly Tree. A 
Novel. By the author of " Dora Thome." 

20. Shadows on the Snow. A Novel. By B. 
L. Farjeon, author of " Bread-and-Cheese-and-Kiss- 

21. The Gray Woman. A Novel. By Mrs. 
Ga.skell, author of " Mary Barton," etc. 

22. The Frozen Deep. A Novel. By TTilkie 
Collins, author of " The Woman in White," etc. 

23. Red Court Farm A Novel. By Mrs. Henry 
Wood, author of " East Lynne," etc. 

24. In Cupid's Jfet. A Novel. By the author of 
"Dora Thorne." 

25. Back to the Old Home. A Novel. By Mary 
Cecil Hav, author of " Hidden Perils," etc. 



11. Manners and Customs in Far Away 

%|l|% ||MFO||A| CH OCCCDl ^"^6 will send any four of these books and our catalograe, con* 
lull UNIIUIIMLILU Ul I lllll taining prices of all leading papers and books for 12 cento 
1 stamps. AnyX 8hooks 20 cts. Send P.O. Note, FRANKLIN NEWS CQ-, 

egistered Letter, or Money Order, and address at once. Xo. 725 Filbert St., Philaaelphiat Pa» 



